Religion Entry Suggested to be Deleted
Wednesday, 22 November, 2006 | 16:21 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The provision of stating a person’s religion on their identity card in the Civil Administration Draft Bill is regarded as discriminative.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction in the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission for Governance has proposed that this be erased.

“We will lobby the steering committee to listen to this idea,” said Tjahjo Kumolo, Head of PDI-P faction at the parliament complex, Jakarta, yesterday (21/11).

The Civil Administration Draft Bill is now being discussed by the government and DPR.

Several religion figures have differences of opinion regarding this provision.

Some have asked for this entry be deleted, others have asked for religious beliefs to be made a separate entry.

Tjahjo is of the opinion that religious beliefs do not have to be stated on documents such as identity cards.

“An identity card does not regulate what religion one must follow,” he said.

Sayuti Asyathri, Head of the bill Steering Committee, disputed that the provision wass discriminative.

The Governance Commission member said religious followers had the same rights as in the civil administration service, for example marriages.

“Whatever the status is, their marriage must be listed,” he said.

Thus, on Monday (20/11) meeting, the steering committee agreed to add one special point which regulates the procedures of religious belief administration.

He said for beliefs that have not been acknowledged by the law, the administration is based on existing rules.

“But the implementation isn’t yet consistent.”

Sayuti said this provision also imposes a fine of Rp10 million for officials who treat religious belief devotees discriminatively in the service.

This amount is less than the first proposal, criminal sanctions and a fine of Rp50 million.

The reason is administration officers are underpaid sub-district officers.

“This is the answer that to the law being not discriminative,” he said.

Raden Rachmadi